Hi everyone,
Perhaps you didn’t have the time to write a full-blown article for the symposium in the Summer newsletter, but there’s still a chance to share your experience here! Tell us a little about your experience:
How can you tell if a seedling is worth keeping?
Do rose seedlings improve in petal count/substance/disease resistance/other characteristics?
How have your seedlings improved (or not?) as they matured?
We will incorporate responses into a Forum article in the Newsletter. “Before and after” photos are very welcome but be aware they will turn out in black and white. Respond soon for a chance to get your name in print!
Ok folks, you asked for it. Here are some tall tales about how my seedlings have been doing:
Some of my seedlings have improved in hardiness in my Zone 4 climate. The first year they died out altogether, but the second year they were hardy to the tips.
I have succeeded in breeding a color-fast version of Mutabilis and a thornless Rosa sericea pteracantha.
My R. gigantea x R. minutifolia seedlings remain rather dwarf if unpruned, but grow to approximately 25 feet otherwise.
I have a single seedling with stamens that fizzle like a sparkler when it opens, but you have to be there at just the right time or you miss it.
My ‘Soleil d’Or’ x (‘Therese Bugnet’ x ‘Conrad F. Meyer’) descendants show excellent disease resistance except for slight trouble with blackspot, mildew and rust on a cyclical basis throughout the season.
My work with found Tea-Noisettes from Bermuda has almost succeded in the creation of a rose with Pina Colada scent.
Here’s a great example of improvement over time: I had a once-blooming single pink rose that developed into an everblooming yellow hardy climber. You should have seen it.
Next time I must remember to post a picture of my orange Rugosa that’s hardy to Zone 1.
So, fellow hybridizers, if your experiences differ from mine please post and tell us about it. If your seedlings are like the ones I’ve described, try the Guiness Book of World Records instead.
Betsy those are some pretty cool seedlings. I myself have a blue rose with white stripes and a blotch. The only problem with it is that the damm thing yells out insults to every passer by. I would love to see your sparkler seedling. By the way sparkler would be a nice name if it is not taken already.
Adam,
Let me know how your Blue Striped Cusser does at the next rose show. I’m sure it will attract plenty of attention.
Betsy I am afraid it will never make it to the shows every time I attempt to cut a bloom or give it a hair cut it screams bloody murder. The poor pansies across the way faint in fright. Maybe if my cusser got together with your Pina Colada it would mellow it out.
Adam,
I wasn’t aware that Roses shared sufficient DNA with Mandrake to be compatible in breeding. How exciting!
Oh, Paul, you’d be surprised. I forgot to mention my Rose-Venus Flytrap hybrids that live off their own aphids.
Ok–I could use one of those!!
Now a venus flytrap rose is a winner in my book. Does it like spider mites by chance?
Paul, Mandrake is exactly what I was thinking.